


Calling Him Home

by Kinoink



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Aftermath, Black Mage Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), End of 5.0, F/M, Fluff, Minor Angst, Miqo'te, Miqo'te Warrior of Darkness, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), One-Shot, One-off, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-10-01 21:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20415214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinoink/pseuds/Kinoink
Summary: The now revealed Crystal Exarch, G'raha Tia, can't help but revel in the way she sparks his youthful side when she calls out his name, no matter which way. It makes the pulse in his veins quicken. In the meanwhile, the bequeathed Warrior of Darkness returns to the First to seek a more private audience.





	Calling Him Home

**Author's Note:**

> There are showings for the spoilers for the end of 5.0, especially the reveal of the Crystal Exarch and very brief in-game dialogue. Also this was somewhat of a brain worm so I wanted to get this out of my head, so it's a bit more short. I am still working on the second chapter for the main series, but because of a brief moment of writer's block I figured I'd write something a bit more simpler.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

He never expected for her to remember, not even a glimmer of recognition, or bat of an eye. His memory of her would come in flashes and dreams with her aid to the Crystal Towers, the moment he saw the true hero behind those gem-like eyes, and heard stories of the malms traveled when he craved for them. He also recalled the gentle sorrow as she bid him farewell and to have a good rest. If destiny didn’t have such plans for the both of them in the grandiose designs, he knew...she would have begged him to stay.

For a century, he remembered.

For a century, he believed her to not recall.

“_ G’raha Tia…! _”

That pained voice still called to him even as she writhed on the ground in agony. Agony he had bestowed to her for selfish reasons. Her soul came to the verge of breaking before his very eyes. Despite the fact he tried to ignore it; his heart clenched as his voice cracked with emotion. The saying farewell to his friend, his inspiration. He didn’t want to go, not when he had been proven so wrong!

His vision had gone black, he felt the pain of a bullet in his back. He ached, but her voice still called out to him!

A dam he had built for the many years that had gone by, the many years of dreams, of memories, of things he believed would never become true again. It kept his emotions in check, but it was breaking as there before him at the very end of the fight against Emet-Selch, she was there hale...whole...and her aether returned to a blissful norm. He stood before her and the Scions, hands wringing nervously, talking about an apology...to that Warrior before him. However, when she faced him there was no anger, no malice, but her warm and cold eyes were filled with warmth and love even a little watered over momentarily.

“_ Glad to see you awake, G’raha Tia _.”

The dam broke, tears had built and fell fast and hot, his name called out again in that caring voice. It was so good to be awake, so relieving to be remembered by his old name rather than the Exarch. Even as Thancred would pat him on the back so they could quit themselves of the final battlefield, she would follow close to his side. They deserved a long, relaxing rest after all...especially after the swim back that tired all their muscles.

Ever since he had returned her to the Source, whenever she would come and go, he still craved the time she would call him by his name, only behind the closed doors of the Crystarium and never out in the open. Too long have they known him as Exarch, so long, he could’ve nearly forgotten his name, but the same call to attention he heard always made his heart leap and feel a little bit younger.

“_ G’raha Tia…! _”

It didn’t matter if she were in sorrow, or pain.

“_ G’raha Tia. _”

It didn’t matter if she were calm and composed.

“_ G’raha Tia… _”

It didn’t matter if it was sweet and soft like a whisper on the wind.

He adored it. It made him almost feel as if he belonged. That he was home.

Days had gone and stood in the Ocular of the tower, fingers absently grazing upon the smooth flat surface of the way she had been sent away by mirror. He wished to see her again, imagining the Mystel, the Miqo’te, like himself with snow white hair always brushed back in a ponytail, skin paler than those who were born as Sun Seekers, her discolored eyes looking his way, and a smile on her sweet lips. Perhaps it was just his old youth appearing, but how infatuated he had been with the Warrior.

“...arch...Exarch…!”

A voice filtered through his day dreaming, it wasn’t until he was brought back to reality with a sudden bang on his door. He could feel his tail frizz up under the robes he wore and his heart rapidly beat from the shock of it all.

“Be begging your pardon Exarch.” Lyna’s voice finally came through as she opened the door a little. Her fist must have been what had made contact earlier with the poor piece of furnishing, “But the Warrior of Darkness is here to see you.” Behind the much taller Vii, his sanguine eyes saw the long elegant whiteness of the tail that he knew her to have. Lyna glanced over her shoulder before moving aside and allowing the younger feline humanoid pass into the circular room, then she would shut the door behind quietly.

In silence there she stood; Gi’ntana Khilo, Warrior of Light in the Source, Warrior of Darkness in the First. She looked the same as she ever did, but instead of robes or anything that resembled that of a caster suggestion, she was wearing something much simpler. It was a long sleeved shirt colored a soft tint of purple, with a brown leather corset around the waist, carved with elegant patterns of flowers, a set of grey pants and black boots that reached up to her thighs. It was a bit of a surprise to see such a change.

“...I didn’t expect you to return to the First on your own accord. What brings you back so soon, my friend?” he asked curiously and watched with curiosity as her white ears would lower just a bit, her hands were behind her back and he could imagine she was more than all likeliness that she was fidgeting.

“Well...I finished up some personal business in the Source, I met up with Tataru, other Scion members that...you know...aren’t here, and the Eorzean alliance just to see where progress was. Everything was...er...at a standstill, so...um…” she shifted nervously from foot to foot. “...I was bored…” she admitted. He stared for a long moment and he swore an hour could have passed before he chuckled faintly, trying to not laugh at her expense. While he was certain there would be so much at her disposal to do, it was amusing that a busy person like herself could actually comprehend what boredom was!

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat, coughing back another small laugh before he looked to her, smiling warmly, “Well it’s good to have you return to the First. You must be curious about where your friends are at with their affairs?”

The question hung in the air and she looked down at the star speckled floor, at first making him believe that it was the truth. However, when she looked up to him, she shook her head a little bit. “...I came to see you, G’raha Tia…” 

There it came, his pulse starting to race as that almost careless whisper of his name hung between them. His heart would start to pick up faster, watching as a rose tint coated her cheeks and that shifting from foot to foot stopped as she would slowly approach him in slow, measured steps. “...What...What is it I could...do that honors such visitation?” he stammered out as soon as when she was only a few ilms away. He hadn’t done anything spectacular that would provoke such a thing, had he? Then he would stare as she would hold out her hand to him, it was empty, bare, palm facing towards him.

“...I want to see your hands for a moment.” The request was simple and with little hesitation he would act like a mirror with the same position. Gi’ntana looked up at him and gave him a small smile, making his revealed cheeks burn as their eyes locked. Once upon a time he believed her to be a missing heir as well to the Crystal Towers, and while it turns to be that he who possessed the real royal blood, he was happy to know that her natural gift had not entwined her fate to be like his. Instead their fates, their destinies had traveled through the rift, through time, to rejoin like this. Slowly she would bridge the gap between their hands, warmth spreading through as a kindling fire and palms pressed together. Slowly she allowed her eyes to close as he watched, ears straining as he heard her begin to mumble something quietly under her breath, but the words were indistinguishable.

That’s when he felt it, a sudden surge of energy passing between them from flesh to his crystalline. A warmth spread, striking into his veins, sinking deeply into his bones, as if something was trying to seek out a source, two rivers trying to find a place to meet...to converge. It wasn’t painful, so he allowed himself to surrender to the warmth he was feeling cascade through his internals, reminding him of his younger days. He’s reminded of the nights the members of NOAH would be sitting around, bantering back and forth over drink about a discovery or a theory. He had joined in the brainstorming, but by his side was the white haired hero curled up slightly at his side, casually leaning against him as a feathered pen would write in the blank page of a book as the warm glow of the fire flickered across her features. Memories continued to flicker by, the happy, the sad, the departure, their reunion.

However, like a tether that had grown too taut, the connection suddenly snapped away, the warmth would seep away and the feeling of being connected had faded away as if nothing had happened. He was left with a broken memory, one that wasn’t his, an outside view of the tower and down to a leather bound book in hand, dialogue was silent as the hand brushed lightly at the cover, but that’s where it ended. Gi’ntana sighed as she looked at her hands a little bit, ears low, and there was apparent disappointment in her voice as she spoke, “I apologize. It was a theory I wanted to test…” she explained softly, fingers absently clenching before setting them down to her side. “Since it’s a bit tricky traversing the rift without aid...I thought that if I could string my aether to a person or object, it’d be easier to find an anchor here.” But it was bound to fail, despite feeling the link, the reflections of shared memories, there was just something lacking. After all, G’raha Tia wasn’t like white auracite, to be easily infused, he was still mortal even with his life so extended. In the back of her mind, she should have known that it would be a failure.

G’raha Tia’s eyes widened a little as he looked at his hands as if the tingling warmth still remained, while he had memories of their time together flash briefly when they had joined hands, linking together, he was shocked that this was the experiment she chose to pursue. A theory that was bound to fail because while part of his body was simple crystal, there would be no way it could truly happen. She did something, knowing full-well it would fail! However, Gi’ntana was willing to risk giving part of herself to him, so he could become an anchor to come to and fro with ease. To come back to him. “Gi’ntana…” his voice came out quiet, wanting, practically pleading as his throat clenched. His body suddenly moved on its own as he stepped down from his height, meeting her own for a brief pocket of time before he wrapped his arms around her tightly. The thought had meant more than anything to him, especially since he could sense the deeper meaning that it could’ve been.

“G-G’raha Tia…?!” she squeaked out the surprise, but his hold would only tighten. Her breath hitched in the silence as she could feel his face uncharacteristically nuzzle against the side of her neck. 

“Call it the youth you stirred within me, but I find that as something akin to a confession. Understand this...you need not have our aethers mix when you can reach out to me on your own with something simple as a thought...” he murmured softly, she could feel his breath hot against her exposed flesh. It caused her body to shiver from the exposure. “Allow me this selfish moment though, for long had I desired to gather you here in my arms…” Before those doors were to shut and seal behind him in the past, he had that brief flash of wishing he could race to her, hold her tightly and beg quietly under his breath not to let it end so soon. He felt a tear slide down from the corner of his eye and his grip would tighten, fingers digging to the soft white fabric.

Gi’ntana stood there in the Crystal Exarch’s arms, nose brushed to the shoulder of his robes, staring down at the ground within her line of sight for a moment. When she first met this man, not as the Exarch, but as the youth who wanted nothing more than to do the right thing in the thirst for finding his reason, she had found him slightly obnoxious, childish, but...he was intelligent and always got her to smile with some of his antics. Here he was again, after centuries for him, decades of maturity that piled up where it had only been less for her, holding her tightly as if attempting to shelter her from the dangers of the outside world. Closing her eyes again she would slowly wrap her arms around him, fingers curled around the tops of his shoulders. She missed him, much more than she would let anyone believe...and for a moment she believed she had lost him completely after he spilled his entire heart out to her on those cliffs in Kholusia. “I missed you, G’raha Tia.” she spoke those words once before to him in a brief nighttime encounter while the party had been going on and the citizenry was celebrating with drinks and delicious food.

Slowly he would pull back though not out of the embrace as his fingers would gently trace into her bangs, lingering down to the marks that were born upon her flesh until he would cup her face in his hands gingerly. He was scared that if he made one wrong move she would break under even though he knew so much better than that. Though his eyes were glazed with tears he focused on her, “Say it again…” he breathed softly, “Gi’ntana…” it was a breathy request that she was finding herself weak at the knees.

“...G’raha...Tia…” she spoke softly, only sparing a glance as his ear twitched.

“Again…” he would move in closer, her own pulse was racing to match his own becoming a harmony.

“G’raha Tia…” She sounded less shy this time, but almost breathless. They were nose to nose, bodies pressing close together.

“Again.” He whispered and her eyes shut, allowing herself to be pulled close.

“G’raha…”

Silence came as she did not need to call him by his surname anymore, his lips would press against hers, softly, but no less filled with pent up emotions of wanting. Decades of this desire spilling over even as his hands would remove from her face and secure around her waist. The infusion itself may have been a failed experiment, but faintly he knew, deep down inside, she was calling him home. As long as time allowed, he would be more than happy to welcome her and be her home with open arms just as she would return with her own entwining around the back of his neck.

Outside the Ocular’s sealed doors, Lyna glanced briefly to the crystal and gold. Her ear would twitch as if straining to hear, but then she shrugged a faint smile crossing her lips. Glancing at the guard next to her she raised a hand and made a gesture of leave. The Exarch was in good hands and who was she to interrupt his much-needed respite with his beloved Warrior?

‘_ Just for a few moments. _’ she thought before starting her way down the stairs.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated, they do motivate me to write!


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